solving the mantle problem in a mid-century modern

When you live in a house for many years (say ten or more), three things naturally happen. You get older, your tastes change, and you get smarter about home projects. It was love at first site when the real estate agent first showed us our house 15 years ago. I had no idea we were buying a mid-century modern. We thought we were buying a 1,600 square foot, 1955 tract house in a decent neighborhood.

A wall was added years ago before us, supposedly featured
in a Sunset article (the walled courtyard) - Picture from Nov-1997 when we purchased.

hooking electrical to mid-century modern fireplace insert

We were pretty annoyed when we purchased a fireplace insert to heat the front of our house and it got installed with a big black electrical cord hanging out of it, running over to the outlet. We had specified with Wilshire Fireplace Shops that we wanted the fireplace hooked directly to the electricity (electrical starter), but the people sent out for the $400 install from the shop weren't contractors and couldn't take care of the electrical.

See the big black electrical cord to the right? Really?

using a fireplace insert to heat a mid-century modern living room

We have heating problems in our house. Big problems. And it is rapidly heading into winter. Later in this post, I'll explain how we solve the heating issue with a fireplace insert. But bear with me for now.

Our house is a flat roofed mid-century modern and all the heater ducting was laid into the concrete foundation. The ducting is galvanized metal and has rotted out down to the dirt underneath. When we turn on the heater every winter, sand blows through the house. I called a heating company, Empire Plumbing & Heating and described the situation.They said it was serious and sent out the owner of the company who put a scope down the ducts. Quote from their extensive report that includes an estimate for $14K to repair, "When we video observed the ducting we observed broken portions of ducting in every single run. We also witnessed several breaks in the ducting from what appears to be defect from new construction in the 1950's." Other problems include water building up in the pan below the heater, "The ducting runs leaving the plenum were draining water back into the plenum and the appearance of water fall like calcium deposits can be seen."